■ Investors wait on sidelines
Shares closed 0.53 percent lower yesterday as investors awaited the release of third-quarter earnings by local companies and the US Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates, dealers said.
The TAIEX lost 37.53 points at 7,059.89, on turnover of NT$73.91 billion (US$2.22 billion).
Decliners led risers 791 to 322, with 166 stocks unchanged.
"The market drifted in directionless trade today as investors could not find a lodestar like yesterday," said Alvin Teng (鄧可欣) of SinoPac Securities Corp (永豐金證券).
■ E-commerce market booms
Taiwan's e-commerce market is expected to reach NT$145.1 billion this year, up 60 percent from last year, according to a report released by the Market Intelligence Center (MIC, 市場情報中心) yesterday.
Among the figure, online shopping accounts for NT$93.5 billion, and online auction takes up NT$51.6 billion, the report said.
Online shoppers tend to purchase cosmetics, clothes and accessories in virtual stores, while buy consumer electronics via auction sites, the report said.
With strong growth momentum in the sector, the market may even exceed NT$150 billion this year, the report said.
The report was based on an online survey on 5,988 users of Hinet, MSN Taiwan, Wretch, Yahoo-Kimo, PC Home Online, Seednet and Yam. The error of margin is 1.27 percent.
■ Starbucks buys Chinese partner
US coffee giant Starbucks Corp bought control of a Chinese joint venture partner in a move to facilitate expansion plans in one of the world's fastest growing markets, the company said yesterday.
The Seattle-based coffee chain acquired equity ownership in High Grown Investment Group (Hong Kong), the majority shareholder of Beijing Mei Da, which operates 60 Starbucks outlets under license in northern China, Starbucks said.
The purchase gives Starbucks a 90 percent controlling stake in Beijing Mei Da, the state-run China Daily newspaper reported. No financial details of the deal were made public.
Starbucks now operates 190 stores in 19 cities in China.
■ Amazon's Q3 earnings drop
Internet retailer Amazon.com Inc said Tuesday its third-quarter earnings fell by a third, but the company still managed to beat analysts' expectations.
The Seattle-based company reported net income of US$19 million, or US$0.05 per share, for the three months ended Sept. 30.
That compares with earnings of US$30 million, or US$0.07 per share, in the same period a year earlier.
Sales for the quarter rose 24 percent to US$2.31 billion, from US$1.86 billion in the same quarter last year.
For the all-important fourth quarter, in which sales are fueled by holiday spending, the company is expecting sales of between US$3.63 billion and US$3.95 billion.
■ Formosa cuts pump prices
Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) cut gasoline and diesel prices after oil prices declined, matching a reduction announced by Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC, 中油) on Tuesday.
Domestic wholesale gasoline prices dropped by NT$0.7 a liter and diesel declined by NT$0.8, effective 10am yesterday, Formosa Petrochemical said in a statement.
■ NT dollar slips
The New Taiwan dollar weakened slightly against its US counterpart yesterday as short covering of US dollar emerged ahead of the US Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates due later in the day.
The NT declined NT$0.008 to close at NT$33.316 against the greenback on the Taipei Forex Inc. Turnover was US$752 million.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained